🧧🇫🇷 First Stop of the Year: Exploring Europe’s Oldest Baptistery!

🌟 Greetings from Poitiers, France! 🌟 🎉 For my first trip of the Lunar New Year, I skipped the crowds and headed to Poitiers—a hidden gem with breathtaking beauty and centuries of history! 🏰 📍 Baptistère Saint-Jean (St. John’s Baptistery) ▸ Europe’s oldest Christian site (4th century), built atop a 1st-century Roman villa! 🏛️ ▸ Its octagonal baptismal pool (originally a Roman basin) was used until the 8th century—imagine ancient immersion rites here! 🛁✨ ▸ Later converted into a church, its walls glow with 11th-century Romanesque frescoes and Gothic murals (12th–13th century). Fun fact from the ticket lady: These aren’t true frescoes—locals had lost the technique by then! 😮 ▸ Even older relics: 6th-century columns and marble slabs (transplanted from elsewhere) add layers of history. 🗿 💬 Poitiers let me escape the tourist bustle and uncover quiet, monumental secrets. Have you explored offbeat historical sites? Share your stories below! 👇 #FirstTripOfTheYear #OffTheBeatenPath #NewYearCityWalk #Poitiers #AncientHistory #TravelDiaries